The invention relates to a cabin element arrangement and a method for the realization of the cabin element. The arrangement comprises a number of separately mounted cabin units located side by side on an even base. The self-supporting and box-like cabin unit comprises at least the walls and the roof and is intended to be moved to its installation site at least mainly as a unique transport unit.
The passenger compartment of a ship, accommodation or office rooms of an offshore construction, or the like portions are assembled by a number of different methods. The so-called on-site-method realized at the installation site includes usually a girder structure supported at the ship hull or at the deck. The cabin is assembled by attaching separate elements, to the girder for instance wall structure. This is a slow and complicated method in the cramped space between the decks. Moreover, the steel girder structure increases considerably the weight of the passenger compartment. The girder structure hampers possible later modification works of the passenger compartment, for instance a renovation of the entire passenger compartment, an alteration in the space arrangement etc.
In a more rationalized method prefabricated wall, roof or the like elements are used, which are delivered to the cabin assembly site on the ship as element packages, for instance. Attachment lists are welded to the floor, roof or intermediate bulkheads of the passenger compartment deck in order to attach the elements thereof. As an example of this technique is presented U.S. Pat. No. 2079635, West German Patent Application No. DE 3708278 and the Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. WO 86/06341. A defect in this method is that furniture intended for fixed cabin installation cannot usually be attached, for instance, to cabin walls while building prefabricated members outside the ship. The bathroom-toilet is not connected with other elements of the cabin until the cabin is at the installation site. The prefabrication level of the cabin will hereby remain low and a considerable portion of the assembly and installation job must be done in the cramped area of the ship's deck, which decreases the efficiency of the job.
A third production method is the prefabrication of the cabin unit to an almost complete fabrication stage already at the prefabrication site. The invention is closely related to this technical area. The cabin unit is moved as a mainly unique entity to its installation site on the deck. Prior art is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. US 3363597, SE 377681, US 4091581, GB 1600110, in the journal "Schiff und Hafen" (Heft 2/1981 pages 25-28) and the report R-85.79. (Ship Research Institute of Norway). The movement of the stiff room unit, the cabin, is complicated in the cramped space between two decks. If for instance a transport pallet provided with wheels according to U.S. Pat. No. 2572348 is used, a cabin provided with a floor will be lifted considerably high up.
A considerable progress is possible by producing a self-supporting, floorless cabin unit (U.S. Pat. No. 4528928), which is lifted up very little above the deck when being moved along the ship's deck. By this means the required free vertical space is reduced. The problem in the prior art is the lateral extensions of the cabin unit prefabricated outside the ship. If a cabin unit is transported from the prefabrication site to the installation site, via roads or railway, the authority requirements restrict considerably the extension of the cabin unit at least in the transverse direction of transportation. Furthermore, the movement of the cabin unit from the pier to the ships deck and further to the mounting site requires an unobstructed passage route. The supporting pillars between the ship decks obstruct considerably the movement of the cabin unit, and the need to reserve an unobstructed passage route complicates the realization of other job stages, too. The construction of the main conduit system of the water and sewage systems of cabins located on different decks, for instance, must often be left to a later stage, in order to avoid the nuisance of main deck conduit pipes located on the deck restricting the cabin movement. A prior arrangement (U.S. Pat. No. 4037385) comprises a room element package without a roof, fixtures and wet room unit, which package can be stretched open. This construction is not suited for an arrangement with a goal for a high prefabrication stage.
The analysis of the prior art leading to the invention revealed that the most significant disadvantage was generated by lateral dimensions "length" and "width" of the cabin unit. By comparing plan drawings of the cabin unit and the ship deck it was found, that a decrease of the dimension by an amount of 0.5-1.2 meters is sufficient to eliminate most difficulties. The object of the invention is to provide a method and a cabin element arrangement, which fulfill this elimination.